Rathfarnham house site for €22m

With housing sites in south Dublin again attracting considerable interest because of the scarcity of starter homes, DTZ Sherry Fitzgerald is guiding €22 million for a substantial block of residential land at Scholarstown Road in Rathfarnham, Dublin 16, which is to be sold by private treaty.

The site extends to 9.86 hectares (24.37 acres) and is easily the most important development opportunity to have come on the market in the Rathfarnham area in the past five years.

The land was assembled over many years by house builder Michael Whelan of Maplewood Homes who secured planning permission for a development of 337 houses, apartments and a crèche.

That permission, granted by An Bord Pleanála, has since expired but is bound to set a favourable precedent for a large scale development.

Well located

The land is particularly well located, one kilometre east of Junction 12 on the M50, and has extensive frontage on to both Stocking Lane and Scholarstown Road.

Peter Lynch of DTZ describes the location as “the heart of old Rathfarnham” and says the setting in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains was clearly one of the best remaining development opportunities on the south side of the city.

The land is located in an area zoned "A" under the South Dublin County Council Development Plan "to protect and/or improve residential amenity" and is clearly intended for a large scale development of family homes. The sale comes as the Sherry FitzGerald Database reveals there are currently 6,945 active buyers in the south Dublin market with an average budget of €497,638 per buyer. A further analysis of these buyers shows that of those registered, 2,191 are focussing specifically on buying in the Dublin 14/16 area and 1,037 are concentrating on the Rathfarnham area.

There are currently only 99 houses in the Rathfarnham area being advertised for sale on My Home.ie and Daft.ie, underlining the fact that a new housing development in the area would be likely to attract considerable interest.